


Lost and Found

by eveshka



Series: Tales of the Dawn King [27]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, you know the drill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 08:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11180544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveshka/pseuds/eveshka
Summary: “Twenty-five, man. Kind of surprised, gotta confess. The whole world’s gone to shit and I thought I'd be done before I hit twenty-one. But I keep going, one foot after the other. Gotta, you know? So I can be here when you get back.”





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Rating: T  
> Warnings: None  
> Characters: Prompto Argentum  
> Time Period: Year 5 of Darkness  
> Location: Taelpar

He’d ridden out to Taelpar on his own, in part because he’d heard rumors that the outpost was sort of up and running, and he wanted to see how it was rigged. Call it curiosity, he’d said. Call it he just wanted to be by himself somewhere. Just one ‘night’, out of all this endless night, where Prompto wasn’t answering to anyone but memory, and it wasn’t going to be doing anything idiotic or half-brained. He’d promised Cindy. Taelpar and back. A few hours. She wasn’t stupid. He knew she knew why. But she let him go anyway. In all honesty? She couldn’t have stopped him if she’d tried.

 

So there he was in Taelpar, and he had to admit the light rigging was inspired. It was good solid work, and Prompto was impressed. A timer, and dual power source for the outside lights, and the interior lights worked on demand by way of a motion sensor. He pondered over the graffiti on the wall inside of the shop for a few, then shrugged. Probably some Hunter trying to leave his or her mark on what was left of the world.

He grabbed his bag off the bike and slung it over his shoulder, climbing up onto the roof of the hotel and settling down at the edge where he’d found Noctis all those years ago.

“Hey, buddy,” Prompto started, pulling out a well-worn photo of Noctis and setting it beside him. “Happy Birthday. Didn’t get you anything… sorry. Shops don’t carry much fun stuff anymore. Oh, and the King’s Knight server finally died, so I can't harvest your Zell tree anymore. Hell of a birthday, huh.”

He kicked his feet out over the edge and rested his wrists on his knees, looking out over the darkness. “Twenty-five, man. Kind of surprised, gotta confess. The whole world’s gone to shit and I thought I'd be done before I hit twenty-one. But I keep going, one foot after the other. Gotta, you know? So I can be here when you get back.” The words weren't bitter. Not anymore. They had been, back in Gralea. But they hadn't been aimed at Noctis. This… well, when Prompto got to the end of it, it was Noct’s fault, but it wasn’t. All told, it just made Prompto’s head hurt to think about it.

“Man… where do I start? Iggy’s firmly entrenched in Lestallum now and Gladio… I don't even know anymore. None of us are the same without you, Noct, but Gladio… he took it the hardest. I thought it was going to be Iggy, because let’s face it, he ends where you begin. And don’t get me wrong, it hurts. Five years… I’ve almost forgotten your voice, Noct, and that eats me like nothing else.”

Prompto sighed, looking out over the distance, then flinched as the lights turned themselves out, the timing not quite lost on his now-permanently twisted sense of humor. “Lights out. Guess this loser’s stuck here for a while.” He chuckled dryly, falling back to look at the black sky overhead. “I miss the stars sometimes, though not half as much as you would.”

In the distance, he heard the arrival of a daemon, and he sat up, casting his gaze out towards the sound. As long as it didn’t get too close, Prompto didn’t think he’d be in any danger. “I don’t get it, Noct. If daemons are humans infected by Starscourge, where do they go? Where do they come from when they appear like that?” He drew his pistol and sighted down the barrel at the thing, then sighed and put the gun away.

“Ardyn… he did something to me. Locked my access to anything. All I’ve got are the pistols in my hands and the ammunition I can scrounge. Ignis said he can call his weapons, and I’m guessing Gladio can too. Must be because I’m an MT or something. Flip a switch and off I go.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he wasn’t alone. Something small and white was in the corner of his vision and he scrambled to his feet with a name hanging from his lips. “Tiny?” A flicker of movement, and Prompto bolted across the roof to the corner of the sign, following.

Nothing was there.

Frowning, Prompto looked around, wondering if he’d actually seen something, or if it had just been his imagination, and for a moment, down below him, it seemed as if something had glimmered. He looked around the area to check for daemons, and then slid down the ladder. His shoe barked up against the railing with a funny sound almost like a chirp, and he froze on landing.

No daemon came to eat him.

“Okay, Prompto, you’ve officially wigged yourself out. Calm down and try to figure out what you saw down here.” He looked up, trying to gauge where he’d been standing, and then traced an imaginary line down to where he thought he’d seen the glint of something. Moving to the right, he looked into the darkness, but didn’t see anything. Turning to the left, however, revealed a flicker of movement, and he pounced. “Gotcha!”

When Prompto sat up, something was clasped between his hands, but it wasn’t moving. It wasn’t soft or warm, either, and he carefully peeled his hands apart to find a small wooden carving of a creature he thought was more than vaguely familiar. A red gemstone was set in the thing’s head, and it stood proudly on all fours, much like a dog. But no dog he’d ever seen had ears or a muzzle like that.

The sound of another daemon arriving had Prompto scrambling back up the ladder and seating himself back on the edge of the hotel roof next to his bag. He looked over at the daemon, sighed in the hopes that it wouldn’t come any closer, and then looked back to the figurine.

The gemstone almost seemed to glow, and without thinking it through, Prompto reached out one finger to touch it. Yelping in surprise, he flinched when he heard that strange chirping sound again, accompanied by a jolt of magic. He suddenly remembered where he’d seen this figure, and blinked at it. This had been in Noct’s stuff. How had it gotten here? Had it fallen out of his pocket all those years ago, only now to be found when Prompto was in the right spot to see it? Or maybe it had been stolen by an imp and been dropped here when the imp was killed?

He didn’t have time for all that; the daemons were getting closer and he didn’t have any idea when the overhead lights would come back on. Either he got inside the shop, or he needed to make a run for it. He stuffed the figure into his bag and bugged it for the shop.

Once inside, he slapped his hand on the switch and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the lights came on. He’d be safe in here until the main lights activated, and then he could head back to Hammerhead. In the meantime, he’d see what was left in here and try to make himself comfortable. “Noct, I think I just found your little figurine. The one you carried around for a while. Did you know it was missing? I guess in all the chaos, a little thing like this getting lost was the least of our worries.”

He poked around the shelves, finding nothing of interest, and sat on the floor with a sigh. “Guess it’s fitting I find it for you. Now I’ve got something to give you for your birthday.” That thought made him laugh softly, giving Noct something for his birthday that had been his all along. “So yeah, happy birthday I found this for you, dude. I’ll keep it safe until you come back to get it.” He tucked the figurine into the inner pocket of his jacket, zipping it closed and patting it lightly. “Who knows, maybe it will bring me some luck.”

He screamed like a little girl when the lights went out.

Grabbing his bag, he hotfooted it for the bike, jumping on and kicking over the motor. “Yeah, buddy, time to go!” He revved the bike and peeled out in a panic, reaching for his pistol, grabbing it, and firing a series of bullets at the approaching daemons to clear a path. When the smoke cleared and he was on the road, he realized that he couldn’t put his pistol away because it was already in his holster. On reflex, he sent the pistol in his hand away, watching the blue light burst around his hand.

He whooped in excitement and headed back to Hammerhead with a sense of joy he hadn’t felt in a while. He couldn’t wait to tell Cindy he’d gotten his link to the arsenal back.

On the roof of Taelpar’s hotel, a figure crouched down to gently touch the head of the small fox-like being. “Good job.” And then Gentiana and Carbuncle both were gone.


End file.
